Hundreds of Israeli police officers have been deployed to the city of Acre in the north of Israel after four days of Israeli extremists attacks against Palestinians where several houses, businesses and cars have been damaged.
The clashes began Wednesday, on the eve of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. More than 50 people have been arrested since then. The riots began after a Palestinian of Acre was attacked for driving his car through a conservative Jewish area during the holy day.
Overnight, Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators threw stones at each other, before being dispersed by the security forces. And on Sunday the normally busy Old City was reported to be almost empty.
About 700 officers are on patrol in the city of about 50,000 residents. Police used water cannon on Saturday to disperse stone-throwing rioters.
An owner of a house torched by Jewish rioters, Subhi Murasi, told the Israeli daily Haaretz: 'Everyone thinks that only Jews are being hurt in the eastern neighborhood, and nobody's paying any attention to us. All the money I invested in this house, and now everything has been destroyed.'
About one-third of Acre's population are Palestinians, with the highest concentration in the Old City.
About one-fifth of the Israeli population are Palestinians and although they have Israeli citizenships, human rights groups say they face discrimination and exclusion in the Israeli society.
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